pintere

Per Baneman.....
 
 
Russian staff school forgot to mention this was supposed to be a joke. I do think Black Adder's prescription for the morale problem is dead on though, in the Russian context.

Always nice to see javelin kicking ***. 

Ok, so looking at the actual poll, this is typical media/political spinning. The headline conveniently leaves out that 70% think that the US should either continue or increase aid to Ukraine with the only split being whether it is given with or without oversight. 
The actual question (question 4 of the poll) was "How much of a role do you believe the US should have in helping to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war?" 71% responded with either a major role or a minor role by combining the two choices. The question was not what the headline above says and neither was the answer. Later on question 7, 69% respond that they support the US urging Ukraine to negotiate a settlement to the war. Maybe that is because most people want wars to end? 
In the end a typical poll with wishy-washy questions that can be interpreted to the will of whatever political slant one wants.
edited to add link to poll: https://quincyinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Quincy-Institute_rev-tabs.pdf

I don't believe any one posted this interview with Oleksandr Syrskyi yet here:

https://www.ukrinform.ua/amp/rubric-ato/3845632-oleksandr-sirskij-golovnovnokomanduvac-zsu.html
 
 

Since I'm now working on another project that isn't related to CM and because I would like to finally complete this project, I've decided that now is the time to get not only the mastermaps, but also the entire CampaignPack released for the general download.
It was very interesting to get in touch with the many people who wrote to me. Thanks again everyone!!! 🙏
Today I have sent the whole CampaignPack to @Bootie who will make it available for download on the scenario-depot 👍
So you don't need to write to me anymore 😎
 
"Mission accomplished" , Mr.X 

A few notes:
1. Many thanks to everyone who takes the trouble to send me kind emails with the first battle reports from the Eastern Front. I look forward to every AAR 👍
2. In order to avoid unnecessary confusion, I have sent the promised 20 mastermaps to @Bootie today, who promised to make the maps available for download in the near future. Thank you @Bootie 🙏
3. So far only one player has written to me that there were a few crashes in the scenarios (especially chapters I and II) that involve a lot of fortifications (trenches, barb wire etc.) --It seems as if this is a specific, individual problem for this  PC  🙏 .
Otherwise, I haven't heard of any technical problems (just like during the test phase). But if such problems arise, please feel free to get in touch.
4. If any player from my mail list is still missing the CampaignPack - please let me know, too. Actually I shouldn't have forgotten anyone, but you never know...😬
5. And if someone else would like to have the CampaignPack sent - contact me via PM or mail👍
I always try to respond within 1-2 days.
 
Regards
Mr.X

I fear that currently any new artillery capabilities like new howitzers or finally getting enough ammo for them, will not be anywhere close to the impact it made last year. As currently Russia has ISR capabilities allowing it to target the artillery effectively, it won't be able to do counter battery and support missions as good as it could in the past. 
The biggest indicators for this issue is HIMARS and Patriot being both hit recently. This would not be possible last year. From my perspective the priority has changed and now the wonder weapon is C-UAS capabilities on regional scale. If Ukraine will be able to successfully remove the enemy UAS, it will unlock all the other weapons to be effective enough to provide force multipler on a scale allowing for actual winning the war. All of the stuff, which is below air force is now locked by overwhelming ISR+drone/ballistics/whatever precision weapon you have. As winning by air force superiority is not an option, enemy drones needs to be beaten. Currently we have something like mutual destruction in regard to drone saturation and its effects on anything on the ground. With longer ranges, this drone dead zone extends far behind the frontline. Reliable, cheap, scalable and currently non-existent C-UAS technology needs to be implemented. Spending time and money on anything EW based is also waste of resources until it literally fries the insides of the drone. Looking at current developments, autonomous seems to be casual at the end of current year so lack of manual control due to EW will not be an issue. 
When drones will be done, artillery and all the other fancy stuff will shine again. Ukraine can't afford to wage war on equal terms in regard of technology so there is no option to just produce more drones than Russia to overwhelm it. It needs to actually fight the enemy drones to achieve its own drone superiority and all the other forces just after that.

Well, here is our answer to Sullivan or to "anonymous sources" in influent Western medias. 
Kuibyshev refinery, Samara city was struck by two drones this night. Fractionating column is burning. This refinery has 7 mln.tons of year output
PS. It was confusion between two refineries. Part of media write about Kuibyshevsk refinery (in Samara city), part about Novokuinyshevsk refinery (Novokuibyshev city, 15 km SW from Samara). I checked Samara VK publics - they tell about the refinery in Samara city - so this was Kuibyshev refinery (Kuibyshev is old Soviet name of Samara). Interesting, Russians rejected any thougts that UKR UAVs can reach them. They believed this is UKR refugees, enlisted by GUR launche frones from Russian territory %). "This villagers just can't do that" - chauvinistical hubris
PPS. Reportedly drones also attacked and hit metallurgical plant in Staryi Oskol city, Belgorod oblast. This plant specialized on producing of special sorts of steel. Local sources say oxigen workshop building was hit, no casualties, no information about damage.

The range is 900 km

 
 

I don't think describing an actual reality is 'getting too domestic'. Trump and his acolytes have made it clear that should he win, Ukraine...and indeed Taiwan...is on it's own and the pressure he is putting on Congress to stymie aid is proof of it.
If you want Ukraine to win, get out there and help make it happen. 
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Senate-passed Ukraine aid package has been put up for a discharge petition today. If it reaches 216 signatures, it can be brought to a vote even against the Speaker's opposition. == As of 12 March == Total signatures: 169 (out of 216 needed) Needed signatures remaining: 47 Democrat signatures: 169 (with 44 remaining). No Republicans have signed yet. We assess: Republican Reps are waiting to see how many Democrats sign before they make a decision. Current top priority: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE! -- If they haven't signed yet - urge them to sign the discharge petition (H.Res. 1016) to bring Ukraine aid (bill H.R. 815) to a vote. -- If they've already signed on - ask them to reach out to their colleagues to encourage them to sign. You can check your Rep's status at: http://bit.ly/discharge815 Now that the working day is over, we can start intensively circulating the shortlist of Democrats who have not yet signed the discharge petition. This graphic is based on the data at http://bit.ly/discharge815. Both that list and this graphic are by @community4Ukraine. #call4ukraine Reposts welcome - no credit required. Community for Ukraine

Hi,
As a Swede I thought today would be a good day to stop lurking for a bit and drop a comment. Been playing cm for 20 years and following this forum for a long time.
Thank you all for contributing to this thread, checking it daily. Always a good source for news and discussion, so much knowledge and experience gathered is hard to get elsewhere. 
I always was all for our countrys neutral stance combined with a strong Defense but last decade has of course swayed us all in Sweden a bit. I have my background in the army, cv90. Seeing us finally start to retake our capabilities regarding defense is good.
Anyways thanks for having us in the club I guess (why am I thinking about brothers Marx)?
Carl 

Havent seen the news here yet but russia officially ended Armata development, citing its high cost as  mine clearing vehicle

Training for Leopard started in February 2023. They were in active combat, in June 2023. Had there been the will to send these tanks in 2022, they could have been ready by the time the Kherson/ offensive took place/had commenced. It started even later. This is analog to every other weapons system. 
The "not possible" is just a moral veil for "not in the interest".

The reason is crystal clear.  44 year olds do not have many children, usually. The Ukraine has dire demographic situation and does not want to be in the position, that it survives the war but has nobody to replace the population gap. To put it crudely, it protects the breeders.

Vietnam war saw US soldiers die by soviet and chinese equiptment, how much was the US willing to accept before sending nukes to the soviet union for that?
cumulative 1.395 trillion purely military aid, 1.765 trillion infrastructure by soviet union. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01495R000500050038-4.pdf Using inflation calculator, cumulative rate of inflation at 594.6%, thats equivalent to 9.690 trillion military aid in todays worth, killing GIs. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ but sure, sending 31 abrams and a one-use atacms delivery after 2 years is equivalent to cold war tension and escalation. Im not sure, did the soviet union also start by debating whether rockets would be too much to send?? 

To be fair, the West has a history of many many big brain moves for the last decades. 

This is the other major flaw in the thinking within the “sue for peace” crowd…what peace?
All war is negotiation.  However, that negotiation is framed by realities on the ground.  So while this war may very well end in some sort of Korean Peninsula solution on lines yet to be determined.  Like the Korean War both sides had to be forced to the table by military facts.
So the narrative coming out of the MAGA/Macgregor crowd is that 1) Ukraine has no hope.  No military solution exists for Ukraine and they build everything else around that central “fact”.  2) seeing as point #1 is a universal truth (and no room for counter-factuals exists within that universe), the Ukraine must sue for peace.  And of course their own Glorious Leader will somehow make an equitable and enduring peace happen.
This is utter bullsh#t.  Even if one accepts point #1 - and there is a growing pile of evidence the Ukraine is not “done”, as planes keep getting blown out of the sky - this theory completely fails to define just how their version of “peace” will happen.  Russian “peace negotiations” in the past have been self-serving and onion skin thin.  If Ukraine begs for peace right now, it will be from a position of weakness.  If the West begs for peace right now, it will be from a position of weakness.  Does anyone think that Putin is not going to exploit this fact? Russian peace terms will be their terms.  They will be designed to ensure: future Ukrainian vulnerability, a clear demonstration of Western weakness and failure, and promote Russian superiority.  
If Ukraine sued for peace right now I have zero doubts Russia would be asking for war reparations…from a country they invaded.  Russia would also likely demand legitimacy and recognition for the territories it captured.  And would make sure they set conditions for successful future actions - they will call it “Ukrainian neutrality”.
There is no easy tap out in this war.  It is a real war where endstate will emerge directly from military outcomes.  As a minimum Ukraine must freeze this war on its terms, not Russia’s and the West needs to support that.  The “fantasy” in all this is not the prospect of future Ukrainian military success, it is the entire belief that there is another option when dealing with Russia.  I suspect there will be an end line in all this and I am less and less convinced it will be the pre-2014 border; at this point pre-2022 will be a stretch.  But it is definitely not where we are today.  Ignoring the lines on the ground, Russian sacrifice is not high enough to force them towards anything remotely looking like an equitable peace negotiation that we could trust.

Me too Frank, great work and it deserves the 'exposure'.  Hope all is well with you my friend 👍.

Trying to find reason in these excuse arguments is an exercise in futility.
They shift over time as proven over and over again as the basis for these excuses erodes.
UA is perfectly able to handle the most complex machinery with little training very successfully.
 
It wont be said out loud but there is no will to give Ukraine the capabilities with which to inflict a massive defeat on the russians.
The (more western) allies have been doing everything to keep the status quo on the front to grind russia down, nothing more and nothing less.
A quick collapse leads to the potential for political issues and instability in russia that europe and usa dont want. In a quagmire, russia is contained and the problem is postponed.
But of course, the reason for only 31 Abrams in 2 years despite storages filled with hundreds of capable machines is, let me check my notes, that they sink in mud. Or was it that theres only so few trainers in the world that the capacity just isnt there? Or was it that their engines are so fuel hungry, the logistic would break down! So many issues.. heres a list! Somehow Iraq got 140, Saudis 373, Taiwan 108,  but thats on sand, it doesnt sink there. Lets not worry about it, did you hear we said we do everything it takes?* Now go fight in M113s from the Vietnam war while we dismantle a hundred Bradleys for scraps.

Two years ago. How it begins. Hostomel
 

Yeah, I left my country 1.5yrs ago, zeroed out all my previous life and business network that were so carefully built over many decades. Surely I did that just to be able to preach around the ideas that kill hundreds of thousands of people out of absolute craziness. Pls don't equate me with Russian propaganda, I eat enough **** trying to build a new life in a new country so late in age, yet never for a second did I believe I chose wrong.

Who could forget this lady. Damn she was on point. 
 

Recently, I noticed that my UKR listening skills have improved noticeably. With the aid of translators and some effort, I can watch and translate UKR videos. So, let check the following interview with UKR AFV expert (former AFU tank officer)
 
 

Nonsense meme🙂

What a squealing little worm.
I know LotR is more popular here (for good reasons) but he reminds me of that rat of Ronald Weasely who turned out to be a cowardly traitor

Hmm I’ll keep that in mind next time my Pixeltruppen in CM flee TOWARDS the enemy when they clearly should’ve just stayed put.
You know, this war has been a great showcase of how really stupid things can happen in modern warfare. And every time this is the case it becomes easier to forgive the mechanics of Combat Mission when it results in outcomes that seem either unrealistic/unfair.